Burnout doesn’t happen overnight, usually it takes years to get to the disappointment and despair you feel when in burnout. When you’re in burnout, your world feels small and you feel small. You feel like life doesn’t matter and what you do doesn’t matter because nothing seems to get better. Usually trying harder and working harder resolves these feelings for you. Its worked in the past, why doesn’t it work now? Burnout is demoralizing. You can’t make decisions. Feelings of looping anxiety go round and round. Self-doubt and depression have taken over. You’re usually ambitious, driven and capable. You were feeling good when you were hard-driven and accomplishments came easy. And you keep telling yourself if you just try a little harder, I can over come this, right? You must not be doing enough, there must be something you’re missing because you’ve never felt this way before. So you give more. You may be feeling shame and are embarrassed telling yourself you should not be where you are. Usually burnout comes with feelings of being disconnected from yourself and from others, isolation and loneliness. If you’re having these feelings at work, chances are youre having them at home and vice versa. You’ve thought about changing jobs, maybe you have changed jobs, but your feelings of disconnect, despair and loneliness didn’t get better.
All these feelings follow you like a dark cloud. It doesn’t matter where you go or what you do, these feelings are right there with a tight grip. They are there at night when you are trying to sleep and they are there when the sun comes up as you get out of bed, get dressed and prepare for your work day.
I have good news for you. Burnout is 100% recoverable. From the ashes of burnout, you can build yourself and your life back up. You can find your way back to feelings of belonging, generosity and kindness. Learning how to activate your happiness and meaning in life will help you re-engage with your purpose. You can bring back what brings you deep satisfaction. You do have agency over your life, even when you don’t think that you do.
If you want to have more mental space to enjoy your life, call or send me an email and let’s talk! If you knew how to solve this problem on your own, you would’ve already done it.
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